IDW

What happens when universes collide? A “Star Trek” and “Green Lantern” crossover miniseries was announced Saturday during the IDW Publishing panel at WonderCon 2015. The San Diego-based comics publisher has joined forces with DC Entertainment for “Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War,” a special six-part event set to kick off in July. “We’ve looked forward to bringing these two iconic universes together for a long time,” said Greg Goldstein, IDW president and chief operating officer, in a statement released before the panel. “Star Trek and Green Lantern both share so many of the same science-fiction adventure themes and ideals, that a galaxy-spanning crossover like this is simply … logical.” The monthly “Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War” will be written by Mike Johnson, a veteran “Star Trek” comic writer, with interior art by Angel Hernandez of “Infinite Crisis: Fight for […]

It seems the long-awaited “Netflix for comics” has arrived. The book subscription service Scribd will add more than 10,000 comic books to its digital collection, from top publishers including Marvel, Archie, IDW/Top Shelf, Boom! Studios, Dynamite and Valiant, the company announced Tuesday. For $8.99 per month, subscribers will have access to the comics selection in addition to Scribd’s catalog of ebooks and audiobooks. “This addition gives comics readers the freedom of unlimited reading, while also giving our ebook and audiobook lovers the opportunity to discover comics and graphic novels,” said Trip Adler, co-founder and CEO of Scribd, in a press statement. Readers will be able to browse comics by character, by series or using Scribd’s curated collections. The addition of comics increases Scribd’s library to more than 1 million titles. While Scribd isn’t the first subscription service to offer comics […]

Capt. Kirk, meet Col. Taylor. IDW Publishing is boldly going there, with “Star Trek to the Planet of the Apes,” an intercompany crossover with Boom Studios. It’s landing in January, IDW announced Friday afternoon at Comic-Con International in San Diego during its “Rock This Town” panel. “It’s a madhouse! It seems like David and I get the fun phone calls,” Scott Tipton said of himself and his writing partner brother, who have teamed on “Star Trek” and “Doctor Who” titles at the company, adding that they worked to find a space within the “Planet of the Apes” movies’ chronology to work in a visit from the Starship Enterprise. He made clear that the cosmically weird crossover will be based on the franchises’ original casts: “Classic ‘Apes’ to me means Heston,” he said. The art will be by Rachel Stott. The […]

“Saga’s” Alana and Marko, lovers from warring alien races, may always be on the run with their daughter, but the truly out-there science-fiction adventure was once again welcomed with open arms at the Eisner Awards. Brian K. Vaughan’s and Fiona Staples’ Image Comics series continued to dominate in its second year as a contender, winning its second consecutive awards for continuing series and writer, and adding the painter prize for Staples. Responsible for bringing the CBS show “Under the Dome” to television and also a former “Lost” producer in addition to his comics work, Vaughan told the crowd Friday night at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront’s Indigo Ballroom, “People always ask, ‘What have you learned working in film and television?’ I guess I’ve learned that comics are not an equal medium — that we are a vastly superior medium.” Trying […]

Lots of kids love comic books. But Scott Dunbier’s passion went beyond the four-color fantasies on the spinner rack — to their artists’ original black-and-white pages. As a teenager living in Woodland Hills, he tracked down Jack Kirby’s phone number and called the co-creator of Captain America and the X-Men to ask for some original artwork, as he had with other artists he admired. But Kirby went further than mailing back a sketch, suggesting that Dunbier’s mother drive him to the artist’s Thousand Oaks home for a weekend lunch — mentioning that he should bring some comics to have signed. “I brought like 50 comics,” Dunbier says with a laugh. “I didn’t know that was kind of not good etiquette. He signed every single comic. He answered all my questions.” More than three decades later, Dunbier has crafted a unique […]

Fifteen years ago in San Diego, IDW wasn’t publishing comics and Comic-Con drew about 45,000 people. How times have changed. The company that Ted Adams co-founded in 1999 with three fellow comic industry veterans has evolved into one of the top four comic book publishers, competing with 22-year-old indie innovator Image Comics for No. 3, albeit well behind superhero stalwarts Marvel and DC, both at least five times its age. Last year, IDW sold more than 1 million graphic novels. And the pop-culture phenom of a convention it shares a city with? A long-ago sold-out crowd of 130,000 is expected this week. IDW – publisher of original horror hits “30 Days of Night” and “Locke & Key,” and comics home to brands as realities-apart as “The X-Files” and “My Little Pony” – is celebrating 15 years of slow-and-steady but risk-taking […]

Free Comic Book Day arrives Saturday, with more than 2,000 participating comic book shops readying their annual blowout of gratis titles and in-store appearances across the country. Marvel’s planning to release a complimentary issue of “Guardians of the Galaxy” that will tease to a game-changing event for Spider-Man, while DC is launching a new series with “The New 52: Futures End” No. 0, which marks Batman Beyond’s debut in the New 52 universe. (The series will continue its weekly run with issue No. 1 set to hit stands Wednesday.) In all, more than 60 titles will be made available at no cost: among them, Dark Horse will release a complimentary issue of “Avatar: The Last Airbender”; Archie Comics will offer “Archie Digest” No. 1, which features a new introduction to the Riverdale gang; and IDW will offer a free issue […]

Acclaimed “Locke & Key” artist Gabriel Rodriguez is now exclusive to IDW, formalizing a long relationship that later this year will bear “Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland” with Eisner Award-winning writer Eric Shanower. The announcement came on IDW’s “Greatest Panel in the Known Universe” on Saturday at WonderCon in Anaheim, where the two discussed the previously announced miniseries alongside a slew of creators with announcements, including Brian Lynch and his wild, hell-on-wheels one-shot “Monster Motors.” And, in a panel later that day on the publisher’s highly regarded Artist’s Editions, editor Scott Dunbier, recently nominated for an Eisner Award for his work on the oversize archival books, announced that a volume of Walt Simonson’s “Manhunter” will arrive in September and one of John Buscema’s work on “Silver Surfer” will be coming in October. Simonson is also the subject of a 22-page Portfolio Edition of his 1970s […]

Do you and your Valentine put Clark Kent and Lois Lane to shame? Or is your greatest love a platonic one, like Sherlock and Watson or Finn and Jake? Whether your loved one is a gamer, a Whovian or a comics aficionado, the Hero Complex Valentine’s Day gift guide has you covered. Click through the gallery above and check out the list below for our selection of the best geeky Valentine’s Day gift ideas, sure to make your sci-fi-loving soul mate swoon. Under $25 “The Adventures of Apocalypse Al,” $2.99 per issue: J. Michael Straczynski’s new Joe’s Comics title follows plucky redhead Allison Carter, a resourceful private investigator tasked with saving the world from all manner of supernatural threats — zombies, imps, wizards, closet trolls and even undead ex-boyfriends, all while dispensing wisecracks with deadpan aplomb. If that winning combination […]

The Tenth and Eleventh Doctors are returning in new “Doctor Who” comic books from Titan Comics later this year. BBC and U.K. publisher Titan have teamed to release stand-alone adventures featuring the Tenth and Eleventh Doctors (portrayed by David Tennant and Matt Smith, respectively, in the long-running science-fiction television series). The Twelfth Doctor (Peter Capaldi) also will be featured after the new TV season kicks off later in 2014. The deal with Titan, which BBC announced Tuesday, marks a new home for “Doctor Who” comics, which have been published by IDW in North America since 2008. During that time, IDW launched an ongoing series by writer Andy Diggle, an extended series (“Doctor Who: Prisoners of Time”) spotlighting all 11 Doctors so far, and introduced the first “Doctor Who” crossover, in which the Time Lord met Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the […]